After many dark years in a six-by-ten cell, Sam Alta Dryden finally saw the light. He headed home from prison and swore he'd go straight even as the warden warned, "Going home is not the best place to start over." Alta nodded politely, but was determined to sell off his moonshine empire, win back the love of his dying wife Shelby, and to revive Tallapoosa, Georgia, a town with a rather checkered past. Alta's new success was legendary: he regained Shelby's trust, launched a major home building company, and was elected Mayor of Tallapoosa. But he was haunted by the advice of his prison psychologist: "Alta, yours is the curse of genius. You want to be the smartest guy in the room and that makes you a sucker for every crooked deal that comes your way." Can Alta stay legit when his moonshine buddies try to draw him into an illegal gas-tapping deal? Can he break the curse, or will it break him? Alta's Curse, a novel by Patrick Curran, was inspired by the life of a notorious West Georgia outlaw.